Developing a New Generation of Entrepreneurial Customers 

Is relying on a single entrepreneurial CEO or a group of co-founders enough while assigning the rest of the organisation (managers and employees) specific goals, job descriptions, and KPIs? 

In an interesting VUCA [volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity] market, unexpected innovations emerge daily, making it unsustainable for entrepreneurs to carry alone the “entrepreneurship burden.” 

To remain competitive, organisations have been cascading entrepreneurial thinking down to managers and even employees, turning them into micro-entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs. The question today is, can this entrepreneurial mindset go even further and be cascaded to the customer?

In the “empathising” stage of Design Thinking, the CRM team puts a lot of effort into inviting customers to provide valuable data through surveys, focus groups, and suggestions. However, customers do not fully engage due to lack of time, interest, or incentive. These three challenges can be converted into three critical strategic questions:

1. How can we engage the customer to create time for the organisation?

2. How can we spark the customer’s interest in developing the product?

3. What does the customer want in return?

Ian Schafer, CEO and Founder of Deep Focus, might have intentionally or unintentionally shared the solution with us: “Innovation needs to be part of your culture. Customers are transforming faster than we are, and if we don’t catch up, we’re in trouble.” 

If we convert this quote into an equation, it would look like this:

The obvious side of this equation is triggering innovation from “inside” the organisation to catch up with customers’ transformation. The more customers transform and expect, the more challenging it becomes for the organisation to foster innovation and retain them. In its SWOT analysis, the innovative customer is a “threat”.

However, the same quote could become a different equation:

This second equation is more about leveraging customers’ intelligence and creativity to foster the needed product innovation and maintain a continuous competitive edge. 

This entrepreneurial approach means simply “partnering” with innovative customers, who become both a “strength” and an “opportunity” in the organisation’s SWOT analysis. 

This two-way innovation flow, not only inside-out but also outside-in, with the internal teams and external customers collaborating towards the greater good of the organisation and the market, yields results beyond customer retention.

Leveraging customers’ innovation enables a new type of collaboration, where entrepreneurial customers act as strategic partners to the business. In The 5 Steps of the Customer Value Added model, the customer can add value at varying levels:

1. Satisfied Customers: Loyal, repeat customers.

2. Engaged Customers: Proactively seek updates and news about the products. They do not wait until the newsletter is sent to them; they try to bring the news first on their own.

3. Insightful Customers: Provide accurate, detailed feedback regarding their user experience.

4. Inspirational Customers: Act as brand ambassadors who have a social impact and influence in their community by using the products.

5. Entrepreneurial Customers: Share innovative, profitable ideas that contribute to the organisation’s mission and vision.

The Three Stages of Customer Engagement model illustrates how emotional attachment to a brand can evolve.

1. Emotions: Customers satisfied with the product’s quality and features, in addition to feeling comfortable with the company’s customer service. 

2. Thoughts: Customers intellectually engaged through mindful challenges, polls, and engaging surveys, where their opinions are heard and valued. 

3. Actions: Customers further engaged by the CRM team’s entrepreneurial efforts to take actions, invest their personal time, and leverage their experiences to directly develop the products, services and overall strategy of the organisation.

Research and case studies highlight the importance of rewarding entrepreneurial employees—internal customers—with financial and non-financial incentives such as profit-sharing and stock ownership for generating and implementing innovative ideas. This fosters a sense of ownership and strengthens an innovation-driven culture.

Going back to Ian Schafer’s quote and our customer growth equation, could similar non-financial rewards (like recognition, exclusive access, or influence) and minor financial incentives (such as minor stock ownership) work for entrepreneurial external customers in exchange for their invaluable new ideas for products, services, campaigns, and perhaps high-level strategies? 

This is the question that we, as entrepreneurial business owners, need to ponder and explore for a new ecosystem of possibilities and collaborations, where customers become our champions in all ways.